Recording - March 2021 - 65

MARCH 2021
TAXI Road Rally 2020

Keynote Interview With Steven Pressfield, Part 2
Best-selling Author of The War of Art
Interviewed by Michael Laskow
You wrote the copy for the Gravy Train dog food
" Just Add Water " advertising campaign in the
'60s. Writing about dog food VS writing novels is
probably not unlike the reaction I've had from
some musicians about writing instrumental cues
for reality TV shows. They turn their noses up at
that, and think it's not cool. But I compare it to
painting houses by day to put food on the table,
and then going home and painting fine art at
night, because they're related. They both use
brushes; they both require blending colors; they
both require a steady hand. So, while one is more
sophisticated and it's art, and the other one isn't,
at least it keeps your head kind of in the game
and builds a little muscle memory, if you will. You
can feel good that you've employed some of the
same skills in a related field.
So while composing music cues might not be high
art, it's still creation. And frankly, some of the
cues I hear from some of our more successful
members, could qualify as high art. They're as
good as any records out there. It keeps your brain
in the game; it helps you become much faster
with your studio equipment, which is important
when you're making music; it helps you become
better and faster with your production chops, also
good for when you're going to record your grand
opus; it helps you write melodies more quickly;
and it introduces you to multiple genres of music
and how each one can create a certain mood or
emotion, which is obviously key when you're
working to picture.
So, am I nuts in thinking that anything you can do
that teaches discipline, and develops that muscle
memory, and keeps a roof over your head while
you're working toward your grand opus isn't such
a terrible thing, right?
I couldn't agree more, Michael. I agree
completely. In fact, I just did a blog post a little
while ago... When I first got out to Hollywood,
I did some work with a director named Ernie
Pintoff, who actually won an Oscar for a short

Steven Pressfield

subject made with Mel Brooks called The Critic.
But he did episodic TV. You know, he did Kojak
and stuff like that. And I would work for him,
and I was like his slave. We would kind of work
side-by-side at a table. But in any event, he gave
me a great piece of advice, which is exactly
what you just said, Michael. He just said, " Keep
working. Don't turn down anything. Work on a
slasher movie; work on a porn movie; do stuff
for free; schlep coffee for people; get on a location. " Because, like you say, you're in the game,
you're making money, you're making friends.
You never know, some person that's schlepping
coffee today-and I can think of one guy in
particular-is a big movie producer the next
day, and he might buy your stuff, you know?
You do a free rewrite for some actress-a weekend rewrite on something-two years from
now she could pull you in on a project. So, I'm
definitely in favor of that. And the other thing
is, like you, I've been doing certain videos lately
where I'm looking for music cues, and they're
hard to find. It's wonderful. If I could find
somebody who could do it, I would hang on

with both hands, because it makes such a difference. So that's one thing: Don't turn up
your nose at anything, you know. Keep
working.
Another thing that [Ernie Pintoff ] said to me
was-and this is absolutely true- " If you're a
writer, keep reading, even if you can't find
work. Read the good stuff. Get it into your
head; get it into your DNA. " I'm sure there's an
analogy in music-keep listening, exposing
yourself to what other people are doing, and
studying them and how they make that effect
or whatever.
You're absolutely right. I tell our members that
all the time, but they get frustrated. Our members range from 18 years old up to 75. We
actually had a member who passed away
recently, I think at 96 or 99 years old, and we
were helping him to make money during his last
years. In the last 10 years of his life, he was making like an extra 20 grand a year from getting
Continued on page 66
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